Learn Spanish through Play: AT THE PARK // Actions (Verbs)

In this post we learn about Spanish action words (verbs) that we use at the park.

What’s playing at the park without lots of action!?  And what is language without verbs?  Just think how that last sentence would sound if we did not have verbs: And what language without verbs?
I am Kali would become I Kali.
We ran around the park would become We around park.
I like to swing would become I like.

You get the idea.  Verbs compose a major part of what we like to express through language on a daily basis.  In Spanish, verbs can seem a little tricky–compared to English verbs they seem more complex and complicated.  So for this exercise we are going to stick to the infinitive and the gerund forms of the verbs.  Do not let those grammar terms scare you away.  Just trust me that those two forms are the easiest to use when starting to learn Spanish.  You can learn how to use them below, and you will simply plug words into a formula.  I promise you can do it!!!

Here are the verbs we used on this particular trip to the park. (Pronunciation guide provided at the end.)

Esconder = to hide Deslizar = to slide

Sentarse = to sit Columpiar = to swing

Escalar = to climb (a mountain) Subir = to climb / to get up on Bajar = to get down / to go down

Tocar = to play (an instrument) Jugar = to play (a game, or just play in general)

When you look at these vocab pictures, notice the verb is written in blue in two forms.  The capitalized one is the infinitive, which in English is when we say verbs with the word “to” before them.  For example “I like to swing.”  To swing is in the infinitive because like is also a verb.  Does that make sense?  So basically, when two verbs go walking, the second one is in the infinitive.  This happens because the subject of the sentence (in our case above the subject is I) is already doing one action, in our case, the subject is liking something–doing the action of liking.  So the second action needs to play a supporting role, and we call that supporting role the infinitive.

If all of this grammar hurts your head, just scroll down to the part where I give you the sentence formula, and you can plug the words in where needed without thinking about it.  My brain, however, likes to ask “Why??” so every now-and-then I answer the whys of grammar for those of you who are like me!  (This is why math never worked for me, because I wanted to know why we do that in algebra, and you cannot really understand that without trigonometry or physics or whatever.)

Back to the park.  So the capitalized word is the verb in its infinitive form and the verb in lower case is in its gerund form.  The gerund is like our English -ing form: walking, riding, playing, swinging.  Here are some sentences you can plug these new words into!

For the first set you use the infinitive (the verbs in caps), and for the second set you use the gerund (the verbs in lower case).